Soon Enough
by TheCanadianWonder
Summary: Daisy's world changed when she met Alison. After becoming close friends with her and 5 other girls she realized that Alison loved to manipulate her friends, and she had a lot of dirt on Daisy. Like her fling with Jason DiLaurentis, and the secret that made her fail a year of high school and could send her brother to jail. Then Ali goes missing and things get even more complicated.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Chapter One:** **Prologue**

The Hastings' barn was well lit, but the five girls inside could still feel the chill of the blustery winds outside. It was labor day weekend and these girls were spending it together before they had to go back to school that Monday. Hannah Marin, Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery, Daisy Thorton and Emily Fields were giggling like school girls- which, of course, they were.

Daisy wondered when the one girl missing from their party of six would finally show up- Alison DiLaurentis. She said that she'd be late but it had been a few hours and she was expected to show any minute.

Thinking about Alison led to thinking about Jason- which, for Daisy, was never really a good thing. Nor was it a legal thing. She may have been a year older than her other friends, since failing her first attempt at being a freshman at Rosewood High, but Jason was still nineteen, which put him a good three years older than her. And she was a minor.

But it wasn't like no 16 year old had ever done anything illegal… Just that night the 6 teenagers had managed to get a hold of some beer to drink amongst themselves. And Daisy knew for a fact that Spencer was popping pills like they were Tick-Tacs. Daisy hadn't told a soul about that and she wasn't planning on it. Secrets were meant to stay secret.

Still, she felt extremely guilty about what was going on between her and Jason- especially since Alison had found out. Not just about Jason, but about the drugs and the alcohol. It wasn't enough to send Daisy to rehab or anything, but Alison had been holding that secret along with many others over her head. That was Alison for you.

The girls had already been drinking the aforementioned beer and having fun for a few hours. They were dressed down to their pajamas and there was a familiar pop beat blaring through the speakers in the barn. It was then that the lights turned off all at once and the music went silent. The girls froze in terror. Daisy held her breath as twigs snapped outside the barn door.

"What happened?" Emily asked, her eyebrows furrowed with worry- was someone out there?

"It must have been the storm," Spencer said soothingly, though it sounded as though she was trying to convince herself of it more than anything else. Almost immediately after she had finished speaking, there was a loud squeak of a door.

"Something's out there," Aria insisted, tensing her shoulders and running a hand through her pink-streaked hair.

"An animal? Maybe?" Daisy whispered, only just loud enough for her four friends to hear. The door to the barn creaked open slowly, frightening the young girls to no end.

"Guys?" Hannah said, her voice quavering even more than those of her friend's. The five creeped towards the then opened door, with Daisy, the ever fearless and optimistic, at the front.

"Gotcha!" A blonde girl jumped out from behind the door and the girls screamed with fright- though there was no need. It was their friend, Alison DiLaurentis.

Aria, Emily, Hannah and Spencer all looked more than a little pissed off, while the other two began laughing together. Daisy enjoyed the lightheartedness Ali had suddenly brought in. For the past few weeks there had been serious tension between the group of girls.

"That's so not funny, Alison," Spencer complained, flicking the switch to turn the lights and the music back on.

"I thought it was hilarious, girls," Alison said, a grin playing on her naturally pink lips. "Right, Daisy?" Daisy fought the urge to roll her eyes- Alison was always dragging Daisy into her shit.

"Right," She replied calmly- and maybe a little sarcastically. "I mean, we are here to party, right?" The other girls laughed with their friend as they settled back on the luxurious sofas that were set up in the barn.

Later, after more than a few drinks, the girls were messing around, talking about nothing and everything. "Ali did you download the new Beyoncé?" Hannah asked dotingly. It was no secret that Hannah was on the bigger side and she had always looked at Alison with an adoring eye. Alison was everything Hannah wanted to be.

"Not yet," She replied with a smile.

"I have," Added Daisy. "It's bad ass."

"I'm loving her new music video," Emily said with enthusiasm. Daisy and Aria both began to agree with her but Ali interrupted, as she so often did.

"Maybe a little too much, Em," She said, a not-so-innocent tone to her voice that made Emily look down sheepishly.

Ali grabbed the tall red glass- the one she had earlier filled to the brim with alcohol- and handed it to Aria, who grabbed it with dainty fingers. "Your turn," Ali spoke. "Go on. Or if you don't want to, Daisy can go for you. She's had a lot of practice." Daisy glared unconvincingly at Ali for that comment. It was crap like that which made Daisy question her friendship with the younger girl.

Without a second thought to anything Ali said, Aria began to chug from the red cup. The other girls giggled and laughed in glee. "Careful, Aria," Spencer mocked. "Drink too much and you'll tell us all your secrets." The girls laughed once more.

"Friends share secrets," Ali said, taking time to look each of the girls in the eye. "That's what keeps us close. Drink up."

It was early the next day- like really early. Way too early for any humane person to be awake. Especially six hungover teenage girls. And yet Daisy found herself being nudged awake by Aria. Hannah and Emily were both up too, but Spencer and Alison were nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Ali and Spencer?" Hannah was the one to ask the obvious question.

"I don't know," Aria said worriedly.

Daisy got up and off the couch, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Couldn't they just be back at the house? They're both early risers, right?"

Aria shrugged and began to walk to the barn's doors, where she almost ran into Spencer. "Ali?" Aria asked an array of questions with that one word, to which Spencer just shook her head.

"She's gone," Spencer confirmed. Daisy's shoulders tensed- but then again, Always was pretty reckless. She was probably out with some guy… She hoped.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Aria almost snapped.

"I've looked everywhere for her," Spencer looked like she was about to cry. "I think I heard her scream."

"Jesus Christ," Was the only thing Daisy could muster. Was Ali really gone?


	2. Chapter 2- Pilot Daisy Thorton

Welcome to chapter two! It's the rest of the pilot episode. This chapter got to over 4,500 words which is ridiculous. I finished writing it at 2:30 AM (Which is when I'm also writing this Author's Note), and I didn't even realize what time it was until I was almost done. So I said fuck it, I'll just finish it. That also means that there's probably a few errors… Feel free to point them out, I'll be happy with any constructive criticism I can get. Remember to follow and review because that'd be super neat-o. If you have any questions, don't be shy.

~TheCanadianWonder.

Chapter 2: Pilot

 **One Year Later**

Daisy sighed as she gave herself a once over in the mirror. It was her first day as a Junior at Rosewood high, and she felt anything but prepared. Especially considering that the day before was the first anniversary of Alison DiLaurentis' disappearance. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before because of that fact- the bags under her eyes proved that. Thank God for concealer.

"Hey, kiddo," Daisy's brother, Ryan Thorton, stood in her doorway, leaning against it's frame. He was dressed very professionally, which surprised Daisy. She was used to seeing her brother wearing worn out flannels- not unlike her own style of clothing- and old, ripped blue jeans. Not this perfectly tailored blue jacket and slacks.

"Hey, Ry. All dressed up with nowhere to go, huh?" She teased, while stuffing the rest of her binders into her brown, leather messenger bag which already held all of her other crap she needed for her junior year. It was mostly new, fancy pens- The 17 year old girl did love to write and a good pen made writing that much more fun. You'd think that considering how much she loved to write she'd pass English with flying colors, but you'd be wrong.

Ryan gave a short laugh before speaking, "Try again, Daisy-I've got a job interview. Gotta look professional." He shoved one hand into his pocket and let the other run through his hair that had a shade of brown that very closely resembled his sister's. "You need a ride?"

"No, I'm good, it's only like a five minute walk," She answered. She loved her brother, but sometimes she felt like it was hard to spend an extended amount of time with him, ever since what happened her Freshman year.

"Why don't you ask your little boyfriend?" Ryan asked only somewhat mockingly. "What was his name- Allan?"

"Andrew's not my boyfriend, first of all," Daisy rolled her eyes at her brother's assumption and teasing. "And second of all, don't pretend like you don't know his name. Besides, it's fine. I need the exercise anyways, plus it would just make both of us late."

Her brother would never admit it, but he couldn't help but to feel relieved. Their relationship had been strained to say the least- even more so ever since Alison went missing. "Alright..." He smiled. "Well, I'd better be heading out. Don't be late."

He turned and left Daisy's room and as he was walking down the hallway he could hear the young girl call out, "I'll try my best," Making him laugh slightly.

Daisy spent a good ten minutes putting together an outfit that didn't make her look like a hot mess after doing her makeup in record time- she had the rest of the year to show up late. Might as well be on time and make a good impression, right?. She straightened out her plaid skirt and tied the laces on her heels before grabbing her bag and descending the stairs to the first floor of the house.

"Dad?" Her call was met with silence, confirming her suspicion that both her dad and Ryan had already left.

A short walk later Daisy was on campus of Rosewood High. Her bag rattled against her back as she walked up the steps. It was when she saw a face that she hadn't seen for nearly a year that she had to do a double take- Aria Montgomery was back in Rosewood, after spending a year in Iceland of all places. Daisy understood though- sometimes she felt like she wanted to get as far away from Rosewood as possible.

And even stranger, Aria was talking to Emily Fields, the two of them chatting like nothing ever happened. Daisy had planned on walking by the pair unnoticed, but that didn't work out too well. "Daisy," Aria called when Daisy was a mere foot in front of her. Daisy turned on the balls of her feet, giving a small smile.

"Hey, Emily, hey, Aria," She spoke, walking closer to her old friends. "I almost didn't recognize you, Aria."

"Yeah," Aria laughed somewhat awkwardly. "I got rid of the pink a while ago. You've barely changed, though."

"I'll try and take that as a compliment..." Then it got awkward. Just like that Summer. After Ali went missing everything got weird between the five friends. They had all drifted apart when Aria had moved to Iceland with her family. It had taken some getting used to for Daisy, but she found other friends. There weren't many, but at least none of them had gone missing.

"It was meant to be one," Aria smiled. "You've always looked so..."

"Unapproachable?" Daisy sassed, the girls laughing together for the first time in almost a year. It felt kind of nice, but it still made Daisy just a little uncomfortable.

The girls ended up walking to their first period English class together, and Daisy found herself wishing she was anywhere else. It wasn't that she didn't like those girls- she used to be closer to them than ever. She just wanted to put everything from that Summer behind her. Everything. And being around Emily and Aria brought up a lot of memories.

"So I hear the new teacher's really hot," Emily said while each of them walked into the English room and sat down. Daisy grabbed a seat so Aria was sitting behind her and Emily beside her.

"I doubt it- the hot teachers always end up being assholes," Daisy turned in her seat to look at her old friends. Emily laughed with Daisy, but Aria was distracted and looking towards the door.

"Is that _Hannah_?" The short girl asked. Hannah had undergone quite the transformation since Aria left for Iceland. The once chubby and awkward 15 year old and become a model-esque, fashionable 16 year old.

"She's the 'it' girl now," Explained Emily. Daisy could only sense the smallest amount of hostility in Emily's voice. Emily was always the nicest one out of he six of them. Mona strutted into classroom not long after that. Her smirk was as wide and as condescending as ever. "And where there's Hannah there's Mona."

" _That's_ Mona?" Aria asked in absolute disbelief.

"Yeah, I can hardly believe it either. The two of them went through there transformation together," Daisy told Aria, rolling her eyes and smiling.

Hannah waved at Emily and Aria, but she seemed to look straight through Daisy, like she didn't even see her. Which is what Daisy expected was the case. When she and Hannah had spoken they weren't hostile, but they did there best to ignore each other in order to avoid any awkward conversations.

"What's up with her?" Aria asked the fair brunette sitting in front of her. "You two fighting?" Her eyebrows furrowed in both confusion and worry.

"After what happened with Ali, and then you moving away… We all just kinda… Fell apart," Daisy explained somewhat apprehensively, not entirely sure how to word the whole situation to Aria.

The next person to enter the small classroom was another old friend- Spencer Hastings. She gave a curt nod and smile to Hannah who politely returned it before going to sit down in the front row. As was expected of a Hastings. "They're not so close anymore either," Emily spoke.

"So they're friendly, but not friends," Aria concluded. Emily and Daisy both nodded in agreement.

The room then fell silent as a man entered the classroom who Daisy assumed had to have been the new English teacher. Daisy swiveled around in the seat of her chair to face the front, contemplating whether or not she could get away with getting some shut eye in any of her classes that day. Probably not, she thought.

It was the teachers deep voice that distracted Daisy from her own thoughts. "Holy crap," He said, with a shocked look on his face. He seemed to have been looking past Daisy- at Aria?

Aria's face was flushed as she held her phone in her hand. "Sorry," She mumbled in embarrassment.

"Uh..." Stutters the man at the front of the class. "I'm Mr. Fitz, your new English teacher."

The rest of Daisy's school day was astonishingly uneventful. She expected her junior year would go just as well as her previous year- with her barely scraping by in every class and pissing off all her teachers by not handing in any homework. Same old, same old.

She caught a ride home with Andrew Campbell, a friend of hers. Yes, there was some shameless flirting that went on during the drive, but Daisy knew she had no feeling for Andrew that weren't platonic. The had been friends ever since Daisy stopped hanging out with her old friends.

She wasn't very close with his nerdy friends on the decathlon team- she wasn't smart enough to hang with that crowd, apparently- but her and Andrew had been close enough to consider each other to be friends. Not as close as Daisy had been with any of the girls, but they hung out every now and then when Daisy didn't want to be alone.

As she walked into her front door she knew not to expect anyone- her dad would have been working and Ryan spent minimal time in the house ever since he had come back from college. She was alone in the large house, and she would be for a few more hours, which wasn't anything new. She was used to that.

She trudged into the kitchen, the heels of her shoes clicking against the polished wooden floor. She sighed and pushed her curly hair out of her face whilst she opened the door of the fridge, looking for something to eat that wasn't total crap.

She grabbed a red apple, realizing that was really the only edible option- she made a mental note to tell her dad to go grocery shopping, or at least give money to her so she can buy some food. Although, if she was being honest he wouldn't trust her with his money… He'd probably be paranoid that she'd go nuts with even $30 and end up pregnant or dead or both. Macon Thorton did not hold a lot of trust for Daisy- he loved her and all, but he'd also once referred to her as his 'delinquent daughter' to his coworkers, so…

She went and sat down at one of the stools at the island, putting her bag on the seat next to her while pulling some binders out of it, setting them down on the island in front of her. High school teachers loved assigning disgusting amounts of homework even on the first day… Daisy did not appreciate it to say the least.

As Daisy was taking a bite out of the shiny, red apple she noticed something she must have looked over when she had first entered the kitchen. Small white rectangular sheets of paper sat in the center of the island. Her eyes furrowed- were they her dad's? Or Ryan's? She reached out her hand to pick them up- they were photos. She recognized the texture. She had taken a photography class during her first time in Freshman year at Rosewood High.

She turned them around to look at the photos and a harsh gasp escaped her lips, the apple falling from her hand and bouncing on the floor. They _were_ photos. Photos of her. And Jason. Those photos could get both of them in trouble, even if they were from over a year ago. Drinking, smoking, kissing.

There were five in total. The last one was of her and Jason, his arms wrapped around her waist, the two of locking lips passionately- there wasn't much talking in there relationships, considering neither Daisy or Jason enjoyed talking about feeling and all that crap. There was a heart drawn around the two, drawn with what looked like heavily pigmented red lipstick.

Her phone pinged, and she almost didn't hear it she was in shock. She had no idea what the hell was going on. She took her phone out of her jacket's pocket and widened her eyes at what she saw after she unlocked her phone.

There was a text displayed on the screen that came from a blocked number. She could feel her hands shake as she read the message.

 _'Hooking up with an older college student, Dee? You and your brother aren't as different as you like to pretend. -A'_

A? A for Alison? Alison was the only one who knew about what had happened between Jason and Daisy that Summer, along with what happened with Ryan. And Dee was Alison's nickname for Daisy- no one else was aloud to call her that. Daisy would probably have slapped them if they had.

What if Alison was alive? What the hell was she doing sending those photos and threatening texts? Daisy ran a hand over her face. _This is insane,_ she thought tiredly. She thought that all that crap was behind her. Guess not. She suddenly remembered when her last photo was taken- that was the day that Alison found out about her and Jason…

 **~Flashback~**

 _"_ _Jason," A 16 year old Daisy spoke, in a playfully scolding tone. "Come on. Alison and the girls are in the backyard." Jason and Daisy stood in the older boy's room, Jason in his typical ripped jeans and an old shirt and Daisy wearing only a bikini with an oversized 'Ramones' t-shirt over it._

 _"Yeah, and you've been avoiding me for weeks now," Jason laughed, a boyish smirk emerging on his lips. "And I'm a selfish guy, Daisy."_

 _"We agreed that we need to stop sneaking around as much," Daisy couldn't tell if Jason was listening or not as he ran his hands from her fingertips to her elbows. "Alison was getting suspicious, and you now how she is."_

 _"Of course I do, she's my sister," Jason responded, his fingertips then dancing on her shoulders. "She'd either blackmail us or tell all of Rosewood."_

 _"That's how she works," Daisy sighed, grabbing Jason's hands in her own smaller ones to stop them from distracting her. "And if she finds out about… Us… Then she'll find out about the other stuff. The parties, the drinking..." Daisy hated talking like that. All the seriousness. She'd rather be either making everything into a joke or getting… not sober. Daisy was not good with words. And feelings._

 _Jason clearly felt the same way as Daisy did about that conversation, because the next thing she knew, Jason's lips were planted on her own. The brunette melted into the familiar feeling of his lips, leaning into him and putting her hands on his chest._

 _She loved that Jason made things simple- she could pretend she was a normal teenage girl when she was with Jason. A feeling she never got around anyone else- not her brother, not her dad, not even her best friends. Jason made her feel like herself, and she didn't even know who she was yet._

 _Jason's arms wrapped around the shorter girl's waist. Their lips moved in synch with each other. Jason knew that what he was doing was wrong- not only was Daisy sixteen, she was one of his sister's best friends. But she never gave a shit about what a screw up he was, because she felt the same way about herself. They were both black sheep in the prefect town of Rosewood with all it's perfect people._

 _There was a bang of a door opening._

 **~End of Flashback~**

It was a few hours after the whole A thing and Daisy was sitting on the bed in her room. Her books and binders were open in front of her, but she had finished her homework hours ago. After what had happened, Daisy sped through her homework in record time- or at least record time for her- hoping to distract herself from think about A and Alison and Jason and Ryan and her mother and everything else that was wrong with her life. Short story short, it didn't work. She just couldn't stop thinking about it, no matter how hard she tried.

Her phone pinged and Daisy could feel her heart race. She really didn't need another message like the one before. Of course, she decided, she couldn't spend the rest of her life being afraid of her own cell phone.

So she put on her metaphorical girl pants and grabbed her phone from her bedside table and felt a weight fly off of her shoulder when she saw who had texted her. It was just good old Andrew Campbell.

 _"We've got a decathlon meeting tonight (1_ _st_ _one of the year, if you were wondering.) Do you wanna sit in? Read the questions_ _for us while we practic_ _? We can go to the brew after. Don't feel like doing nothing tonight,"_ The message read.

Daisy felt herself smiling at the message- that's exactly what she needed. Something to get her mind off of everything. Even if it was a lame decathlon meeting with her nerd friend. She texted Andrew back, telling him that she'd meet her at the school. She knew which class to go to-Andrew had dragged her to multiple meetings last year.

Daisy slipped on and tied up her high heels once more, grabbed her bag and bounced down the stairs to the first floor. She stopped by Macon's office- her father- to tell him where she was going. Normally he would have been apprehensive of her going out, but he knew Andrew and loved him.

She assumed it was because Andrew was so academically inclined and her father hoped that he'd rub off on her. He liked Andrew so much that he'd given her the keys to the car- after he had seen the texts from Andrew himself, of course.

So, the young girl ended up driving her father's car to the school. She was in a substantially better mood than she was a mere twenty minutes earlier, yet she still couldn't get all that A crap out of her head. She was desperately hoping that joking around with her friend would do the trick, though she doubted it.

She never did get to find out, though. To get to the school she had to drive by the old DiLaurentis house- of course the DiLaurentis' weren't living there anymore- but she couldn't get by it. There was a group of reporters, policemen and ambulances blocking the road, along with other confused citizens of Rosewood crowded around the road and driveway of the old DiLaurentis house.

The young girl pulled the car over, her stomach suddenly filled with worry and dread. She got out of the car and it took everything in her not to run towards the scene. Instead she walked quickly, her heels clacking loudly against the pavement. What she first saw made her feel sick to her stomach- a black body bag was being lifted onto a stretcher by two coroners with gloved hands.

She listened in to one of the female reporters who was talking into a microphone and facing a camera. The reporter had a feminine and professional voice as she explained what had happened that night. With every word Daisy's face lost more color and she felt even more sick.

They had found Alison's body. Her dead body. It happened when the new family who lived there was removing the gazebo in the backyard. Someone had murdered the fifteen year old and then buried her body in the dirt where the gazebo was to be built back then.

Daisy's eyes traveled the scene and she spotted two of her old friends- Aria and Spencer. She walked over to them briskly, a grim look spread across the faces of all three girls.

"Is this real?" Daisy asked when she was standing beside Aria and Spencer, each of them facing the DiLaurentis house. The silence that came after her question answer enough. Alison was dead.

"I heard the cops took Hannah to the police station today," Aria said, avoiding Daisy's question.

Spencer paled, looking at Daisy and Aria as she spoke. "You don't think she'd ever talk about-"

"The Jenna thing?" Hannah interrupted, coming up behind the girls. "We made a promise."

 _Alison was dead._

 **A Few Days Later**

Daisy flattened her black dress. It hugged her torso and flared out at the waist. She was wearing black high heels and a black flower crown to go with it. She looked fit for a funeral. Alison's funeral to be exact.

Macon, Ryan and Daisy Thorton were all standing outside the Rosewood Catholic Church, where Alison's funeral was being held. The Thorton family was walking towards the church's large double doors, Daisy scanning all of the faces around her. She didn't even recognize half of them. She doubted most of them even knew Alison. That's how funerals always went.

"Thank you… The discovery of her body rocked her community, and today hundreds of mourners gather to say goodbye to Alison DiLaurentis," A male reported spoke into an oversized mic. Daisy suddenly felt like she wanted to throw up.

As soon as the three of them had entered the church, Daisy was approached by Alison's mother, Jessica DiLaurentis. "Oh, Daisy," She said loudly, making multiple people turn their heads towards the two. Jessica gripped daisy firmly by the shoulders. "It's good to see you. How about you go join the other girls at the front? For Alison?"

Daisy couldn't force herself to say anything, so she just nodded. She gave a wave to her family before heading to where the other four girls were. They all greeted Daisy politely, making room for her between Emily and Hannah.

"Poor Ali," Emily sighs, looking at the coffin with heavy sadness in her eyes.

"Can you believe what a scene this is?" Hannah says with a small noncommittal laugh.

"Alison would have loved it," Aria let a small smile cross her lips and Daisy couldn't help but join her.

"All eyes on her," Daisy agreed.

"Popular in life and death," Spencer murmured, only loud enough for the other girls to hear her. Aria nodded her head.

Hannah gave a look to Emily before rummaging around in her purse for a bit. She pulled out a black flask that was filled with an unknown substance and stuck her arm out in front of Daisy, offering up the alcohol to Emily.

"No thanks I don't-" Emily started, but Hannah interrupted her.

"Today, I think you do."

After Emily had taken a rather large gulp, Daisy grabbed the flask and took a few sips herself. "I know I do," She sighed.

Aria's cell went off in her purse, and she pulled it out. A worried look crossed her face as she read whatever was on the screen. "Anyone we know?" Hannah asked casually, though her tone was slightly accusing.

"No, it's just my mom sending me a text," Aria answered carefully. She looked up at her friends before putting her phone back in her bag, a look of realization painting her soft features. "Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from A, are we?"

Daisy tensed at the mention of A- she wasn't sure if it was comforting or worrying to think that she wasn't the only one who was being tormented by this A person. Did A have dirt on her friends too? Because that though was definitely more worrying than comforting, she decided.

Nobody answered, but the five girls had reached an understanding. All of them had heard from A. Spencer then turned in the pew, looking at something near the entrance at the church. "Oh my God," She exclaimed. "It's Jenna."

The five of them all turn around to confirm. And it was true. Jenna was there, sunglasses on, being lead around by an unfamiliar young man. Everything from Daisy's past seemed to be popping up all at once.

They didn't have time to further discuss Jenna Marshal's return, because Jessica DiLaurentis had seated herself beside the girls and began talking. "Did you see that Jenna Marshal was here? I didn't realize she and Ali were friends," Mrs. DiLaurentis sounded just as confused as Daisy felt.

"They weren't," Replied Spencer. Their conversation was once again interrupted when the Minister stood and began speaking.

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away..."

The ceremony ended an hour later, and frankly, all five of the teenage girls felt emotionally exhausted. Daisy felt like she had been sitting in that damn pew for days. The girls all exited the church together, no one talking, but they all felt comfortable. They needed each other, even Daisy could admit, no matter how reluctant she was to start talking to her old friends again.

A man in his mid twenties dressed in a neatly tailored black suit approached the girls. Daisy's face paled considerably- she recognized this man, and she was not excited to have to talk to him."Emily, Daisy, Spencer, Aria and Hannah," He greeted in a condescending tone.

"Do we know you?" Spencer asked the man. None of the other girls recognized him, they all felt uncomfortable with him coming up to them and greeting them in such a way.

"I'm Detective Wilden," The man smirks. "I understand you were all good friends with the victim."

"Yeah, we were," Aria said, though Daisy had the feeling that the Detective already knew the answer.

"I'm gonna need to talk to each one of you," He says. The girls exchanged a coy, confused look with one another.

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing," Spencer told Wilden, slightly more hostile than before.

"You have our statements," Daisy agreed, hoping Wilden would let it go. She did not want to spend any alone time with Wilden. He was an untrustworthy asshole, in short.

"And I intend to go over every one of them, Ms. Thorton," Says Wilden, looking at Daisy directly. "This is no longer a missing persons investigation. It's a murder. Rest assured, I _will_ find out what happened that summer." His tone was threatening, and Daisy felt even more queasy than before. Wilden walked away and the girls looked at each other. Did Wilden think that _they_ had anything to do with Alison's death? Daisy didn't even want to think about it.

"Do you think he knows about..." Aria couldn't finish her own question, but Hannah answered it anyways.

"No. How could he?"

In that moment each of the girls phones went off one by one. They knew who it was from, they didn't have to say it out loud. They all pulled their phones out, looking at the message they had received, all of them identical.

"Oh my god," Aria breathed.

"This is… Ridiculous," Daisy almost whined. She was already over this.

"It's from-" Hannah started.

"I got one two," Emily said. Unbelievable. None of them need this.

 _"I'm still here bitches,"_ Spencer started to read the text message out loud.

The five girls continued to read the text in perfect unison. _"And I know everything -A"_


	3. Chapter 3: The Jenna Thing

**Chapter Three:** **The Jenna Thing**

It was only a few hours after Alison's funeral and the five girls had gathered at the 'Rosewood Grill,' a popular restaurant in town. The girls had ordered a bit of food, but none of them were very hungry, not with what had happened at their friend's funeral.

Daisy felt like crap. This A person knew stuff that nobody knew about her… Besides Ali of course, but dead people can't send texts. And with Jenna and Wilden back in town, it was like all of her secrets from her past were being dug up.

"Why was Jenna there?" Aria asked, referring to the young blind girl who used to go to school with them.

"I guess she's back," Spencer replied, making the rest of the girls give each other a worried look. Jenna coming back was exactly what they were afraid of.

"Maybe she was just visiting- for the funeral?" Daisy said optimistically, but doubtfully.

"Have we ever been that lucky when it comes to Jenna?" Hannah said with heavy sarcasm. "What about that cop? He acted like we were suspects or something." Daisy could feel her shoulders tense up at the mention of _'Detective'_ Darren Wilden.

"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily wrapped her hands around her elbows and biting her lip in worry.

"Why would we?" Aria responded. "We haven't done anything wrong."

"Besides lie about the Jenna thing," Hannah snapped back.

"Wilden isn't investigating what happened to Jenna," Insisted Daisy. "He's inspecting what happened to Ali- which we have nothing to do with." The table of girls nodded in agreement with Daisy.

"Plus, we promised we'd never bring up the Jenna thing again, remember?" Spencer chided, lowering her voice to a whisper so that her friends would be the only one to hear what she was saying. "It never happened."

"Have you found a way to forget?" Aria asked, confusion laced into her tone. "I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night."

"Aria, it was an accident," Spencer told the small girl in the most comforting voice she could manage.

"I personally prefer never talking about it," Daisy said pointedly. It was the truth- that was pretty much how she dealt with all of her problems.

Hannah pulled the flask out- the same one that Emily and Daisy had taken a drink from earlier- and poured a good portion of whatever was in it into her glass. A nosy man from another table near the girls gave Hannah a judgmental and disapproving look. She glared right back at him. "It's medicinal," She snapped. "Cramps!" With a shake of his head, the elderly man looked away, back to minding his own business.

The rest of the girls ignored that little interaction as Emily began to speak, "I don't get it," She breathed. "How does A know something about me that only Alison knew?" The girl voiced each of her friends thoughts. Only Ali knew about what went on between Jason and Daisy- what if A knew about what happened with Ryan in Daisy's first freshman year? Or about what happened to her mother? Things that only Alison knew.

"Ali knew all of our secrets, but… We didn't know any of hers," Aria shrugged.

"I knew some," Spencer murmured, sounding almost ashamed. It was very unlike Spencer- the Hastings were a very proud people.

The girls leaned in, suddenly much more interested. A secret about Ali? "Go on," Aria insisted as the other girls nodded in agreement.

"Talk," Said Hannah shortly.

"I can't," The young Hastings girl shied away.

"Spence!" Cried Aria. "No, you are not gonna drop a bomb like that and just clam up."

Spencer sighed and dropped her head back. "She'd so kill me if I told you."

"Dead girls can't commit murder, Spencer," Daisy said, earning a scolding look from Emily sitting beside her, to which Daisy shrugged in response. They couldn't keep pretending that Ali was still 'with them.'

"Ali was seeing someone that Summer," Spencer said apprehensively, after checking around her to make sure that no one outside their group was listening into their conversation. Daisy couldn't help but roll her eyes at her friends paranoia, though she did understand it. After all that A crap they were all a little more jumpy than usual.

"I knew she was keeping something from me!" Emily exclaimed feverently. Her friends all gave her a weird look at her sudden outburst. "From us," She quickly corrected herself.

"Well, why didn't she want us to go?" Aria asked, to which Daisy nodded.

"Yeah, that's not even a big deal," Daisy said, assuming that Ali was just being regular old over dramatic Alison.

"He was an older boy," Spencer breathed quietly. "And he had a girlfriend." Daisy immediately though about how hypocritical that was and how typically Alison. Ali had spent most of that summer ragging on Daisy for her relationship with Jason because he was older, and not only was she seeing an older guy the whole time, but it was a guy with a girlfriend. Of course.

"Who was it?" Emily asked, voicing one of the many questions that all five girls had.

Spencer shrugged and folded her hands on the table in front of her. "I don't know," She admitted. "She never told me his name."

"God that's so Alison," Daisy said out loud, doing her best to keep the hostility out of her tone. She may have been pissed, but Alison was laying in a coffin. Respect the dead, right?

"That's only half a secret," Hannah rolled her eyes- that was barely even interesting. Ali could have been lying, for all Spencer knew.

"It's more than you ever got from her," Spencer bit back.

"How is it that Ali told us nothing and we told her nothing," Aria said, half sad and half pissed off at the way Alison used to manipulate all of her friends.

"Because she made us feel like we were part of something special," Emily mused lowly. Daisy may have gotten regularly pissed off at Alison, but she couldn't help but to agree with what Emily said.

"We were," Hannah insisted.

"I miss that," Added Aria.

"Me too," Spencer sighed.

"I miss Ali," Emily said, her voice getting even lower than before.

"Hard not too," Daisy ran her hand through her hair tiredly as she spoke. It was true- Ali's face was plastered all over town and people loved to talk to the dead girl's friend.

"I can't believe you still wear that..." Hannah changed the subject quickly, which Daisy was thankful for. Hannah was referring to the purple woven bracelet that Emily wore that had her name stitched into it. Ali had made one for each of them, and Emily was the only one who still wore hers. Daisy's was kept in a small wooden box on her dresser in her room. She hadn't looked at it for months.

"Ali still wears hers," Emily replied defensively. "Wore..."

They all felt as the conversation needed yet another subject change, which Spencer quickly provided. "When Ali didn't come home that night," She started slowly. "I knew something terrible must have happened. But there was always some part of me that imagined someday she'd just… Show up."

"Yeah," Aria agreed. She let a small smile come across her lips as she spoke. "I used to think that maybe she just… Run off with some guy."

Daisy chuckled lightly. "That does sound like a typical Ali thing to do."

"Yeah, like she was lying on a beach somewhere," Emily added. Sad smiles had then crossed each of the girls faces as they talked about their old friend.

"Or getting a tan by the pool with that hot lifeguard," Hannah said, making the girls giggle, just like old times. It almost made Daisy uncomfortable how reminiscent of _old times_ it was. But at the same time it made her feel warmer than she had in a long time to be around her friends.

"Oh, yeah," Aria laughed heartily. "What was his name again?"

"Who cares," Hannah teased. "Save me, save me!" The girls all laughed together at the memories.

The laughter all came to a halt though when they saw Jenna Marshall come through the door of the restaurant. The girls shared a look, silently communicating. They knew that they had to get the hell out of there. They managed to quietly sneak out as Jenna made her way to a table, her cane tapping on the floor.

The girls had parted ways shortly after, all of them headed home. Daisy was relieved when she got home, kicking off her heels almost as soon as she walked through the door. "Daisy Mae?" She could hear her dad call from his office. Her father called her by her first and middle name on a daily basis. Daisy was not too fond of it. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, Dad, it's me," Daisy responded, making her way to his office. Her dad's office was where he would spend most of his time when he was at home, and it was one of the more extravagant rooms in the house. Daisy didn't step foot in that room when her dad wasn't there.

Macon looked up from his computer when his daughter entered the room, a concerned look coming over his face. "Did you get dinner?" He asked sincerely. "With the girls, I mean." Daisy noticed the empty glass and the half empty bottle of whiskey that sat in front of her dad on the wooden desk.

"Yeah," Daisy nodded. "We grabbed some food at the Grille."

"Daisy..." Macon started rather apprehensively, looking at Daisy who was leaning against the door frame. He took his glasses off and placed them on the desk in front of him with a sigh. "I'm so sorry."

Daisy had no clue what he was talking about- though she could guess. Macon didn't like Alison very much when she and Daisy were friends. After Daisy had failed the year, he thought that all of his daughter's attentions should be focused on her schoolwork and Alison was nothing to him but a distraction. Daisy figured that was what he was apologizing for.

Either way, she didn't want to have a long, heartfelt talk with her dad. Those never really ended well for the two of them. Daisy and her father were alike in the sense that they like to ignore their emotional problems until they went away. Not the best strategy, no but the Thortons always had been a stubborn bunch.

"… Goodnight Dad."

The next morning Daisy had to suppress a tired groan when she woke up almost an hour after her alarm had gone off. Daisy was anything but a morning person. She rolled out of bed tiredly, thinking about how she wasn't even a little bit ready to go to school the day after Ali's funeral. She even dressed lazily; a pair of old jean shorts and a plaid t-shirt with her old black converse. She did not want to put too much effort in anything that day. She got dressed as quickly as she could, making up for lost time.

After packing up her bag for her day at school, she trudged down the stairs. When she got to the kitchen, Ryan was standing at the island, the days newspaper in his hand while he sipped from a coffee cup.

"You're gonna be late," Her older brother sang out, laughing slightly.

"Why didn't you wake me?" Whined Daisy, as she mentally decided that she would skip breakfast that day.

Ryan shrugged noncommittally. "Figured you'd need the sleep," His answer made Daisy smile. "Get going, you don't wanna be late, Kiddo."

Daisy was thankful for her brother in that moment; he was the first person she'd talked to in the past few days that hadn't brought up Alison or asked how she was doing. She was getting real tired of that, and Ryan was the only person who knew that she wouldn't want to talk about it.

Daisy ended up getting to school way before the bell rang- her paranoid mind made her speed walk all the way to Rosewood High. She opened her locker, roughly putting all her binders and books and other crap into it.

"Hey," A voice from beside her made her jump. The voice belonged to Andrew, who was holding two paper coffee cups that the young boy must have bought from The Brew, a local coffee shop.

"Andrew," Daisy cried. "God, you scared the shit out of me."

"Is that any way to talk to your best friend," Andrew teased, laughing. "And the man who brought you coffee?" Andrew smirked, handing the shorter girl in front of him one of the coffee cups- the one that he hadn't been drinking from.

"My hero," She said sarcastically. "See later, nerd." She laughed along with Andrew, who waved while walking to his first period class.

Daisy was taking her science books out of the locker when the bell rang and intercom clicked on above her head shortly after, the principle's voice booming across the almost empty hallways, "Will the following students please report to the office; Emily Fields, Aria Montgomery, Daisy Thorton, Spencer Hastings and Hanna Marin."

Daisy slammed her locker shut after the announcement ended. Looking around the hallway, she realized that the five girls were the only ones left in the hallway. They joined together, worried looks etched on each of their faces.

They began to walk silently together towards the office, but the trek was quickly interrupted by each of their phones going off, one bye one. The girls all took their phones out simultaneously to read the message, dreading what would be on the screen. "Wait," breathed Aria. "It's from A."

Hanna read the text out loud in a solemn voice, "Dead girls walking- A."

It turned out that waiting in the office was Darren Wilden, wanting an interview with the girls discussing what had happened the night Ali had died. Daisy swore up and down that she'd rather be sticking needles in her eyes than spending time with Wilden. Yet that's what the girls had been doing for two whole periods. They had gone over all of what had happened that night- leaving out the underage drinking, of course- and Darren was going over it all with the teenagers.

"So, let's see," Wilden started. "You thought you heard her scream," He said to Spencer.

"I-I said that, yeah," Spencer managed to stutter out.

"And when the four of you woke up in the barn, Alison was gone," Darren continued to recap what they told him. "And so was Spencer.

"Yes," Spencer spoke up, sharing a look with her friends. "I woke up before them, and I realized that Ali was missing, so..." She trailed off.

"So you went looking for her," The detective confirmed.

"That's what happened," Spencer nodded. The other girls could see that Spencer was slowly getting more and more annoyed, and they all felt the same way.

"I got that," The man spoke, with a rather condescending tone. "So, what's up? Was this a slumber party, or…?"

"Is this an interrogation," Spencer said quickly, the lawyer Hastings in her spreading its wings.

"No, just a routine follow-up," Wilden said, sounding rather unconvincing to Daisy's mind. "Why did you guys all fall asleep?"

Aria shrugged, "I guess we were tired."

"Tired, really? Is that how you remember it, Hanna?"

"Yeah," Hanna said, not looking Wilden in the eye.

"What about you, Daisy?"

Daisy rolled her eyes, "It was late," She said quickly. She was not in the mood for Darren to pick on her and her friends.

"Yeah… You guys were tired," Wilden had suddenly taken on a more threatening tone than before.

"Look, we've told you everything we know," Spencer sighed. "Just like we did the night she went missing."

"I know," Wilden nodded, his eyebrows furrowed. "And you see, the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year- Almost like it was rehearsed."

"Well," Daisy began, looking Wilden straight in the eye. "You know how nosy people in Rosewood can be. You must understand how many times people asked us for the story. How many times people wanted us to tell them what happened that night."

"Right," Aria said. "And like Spencer said, we've told you everything we know."

The 'chat' with Wilden went on for another few minutes- Darren must have put two and two together and figured out that the girls told him all they had to tell. So he had let the girls leave the office without any other troubles, though Daisy was sure to send a few glares his way as they left the room.

The girls had then made their way to the courtyard as it was already lunch. They grabbed one of the circular tables in the center of the courtyard and sat down.

"He knows we're lying," Aria said with a deep frown. Daisy had to agree; everything that Wilden had said had an underlying meaning to it. Like he knew something thy didn't.

"Lying is not a crime," Hanna shrugged.

"It is when you're giving false statements to the police," Interjected Spencer. "It's called obstruction of justice."

"Oh please!" Hannah whisper-yelled, just to make sure no one was listening in to their conversation. "We lied about drinking, but the truth that matters is that we don't know anything about what happened that night."

"We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her," Spencer said lowly. She didn't have to say who she was referring to- they all knew she was talking about Jenna Marshall.

"Then we would have had to tell him about what we did to Jenna," Daisy said, her hands curling through her hair worriedly.

Emily shook her head, "We should have told the police about Jenna's accident the night it happened."

"I wanted to, remember?" Hanna said.

"It should never have gotten that far," Daisy sighed.

"Daisy's right- we had a chance to do more than just the truth," Aria agreed.

"But we didn't," Spencer said harshly. "And telling the police about what happened to Jenna isn't going to make her see again. It'll just ruin our lives."

The other girls reluctantly agreed- they couldn't very well send out their college applications from a prison cell- or a juvi cell at least, since the oldest one of them is 17.

The five of them all looked up when they heard the familiar and somewhat startling sound of a cane tapping on the ground. Jenna Marshall was walking around the courtyard, sunglasses on and cane in her right hand. "Oh my God, she's back in school too?" Hannah whispered, stating the obvious.

Aria stood, and walking over to Jenna, ignoring all of the other girls' silent protests. She smiled when she got closer to Jenna and began to speak. "Jenna? Hey it's-it's Aria," She stuttered. "Do you… Do you want to come sit with us?" The other girls froze.

"Sure," Jenna said with a smile. Aria grabbed Jenna's hand and guided her over to their table, somewhat awkwardly.

"So," Aria said, helping Jenna sit down in the only vacant spot left before Aria grabbed a spot for herself. "You're gonna be between Hannah and Emily and Spencer and Daisy are across from you."

"So," Jenna started. "This would be Alison's chair." It was all Daisy could do not to gasp at Jenna's words.

"No," Emily confirms. "We're not even sitting at that table."

"Not close to it," Daisy nodded. "That table was inside."

"You know," Jenna said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. "She came to see me in the hospital after the accident." Daisy looked up, confused. Ali hated Jenna since the day they met. What would make her go check on Jenna in the hospital like old friends?

"Alison did?" Spencer asked for confirmation.

Jenna nodded. "Mm-hmm. Everyone misunderstood Alison, but I knew the real Alison." Daisy tried hard to ignore the backhanded insult from Jenna. Since when were Alison and Jenna besties?

"When did you get back, Jenna?" Spencer asked. "We heard that you were in Philadelphia, at a school for the… Visually impaired."

Jenna giggled a little, making Daisy all the more uncomfortable. "You can say 'blind,' Spencer. It's not a dirty word," Jenna spoke. The girls didn't say another word. A large silence took place of the conversation. Jenna chuckled once more. "Wow," She said. "It's so quiet. You guys used to be the fun table. What happened?" They all chuckled awkwardly. Daisy wanted nothing more in that moment than for the bell to ring. It was the fist time she ever actually wanted lunch to end and algebra to start.

 **~Flashback~**

The six girls were in Emily's bedroom, giggling and having fun. Clothes were strewn about the room and they were all trying on clothes. They were having a legitimately good time, and every girl in the room had a smile on her face. That is until Ali looked outside, and her smile immediately dropped from her lips, an angry frown replacing it.

"I see you!" She cried towards the window. She turned to the girls before speaking again, "Oh my God, I can't believe it."

"Who was it, Ali?" Emily said frantically. "What did you see?" Daisy ran to the window where Alison had seen something, but whoever it was had clearly heard Alison and had high-tailed it out of there.

"He was in that tree, spying on us," Explained Alison, throwing a shirt on over her bare torso. "I am so creeped out."

"Who was it?" Spencer asked, repeating Emily's question.

"It was that perv, Toby Cavanaugh," Ali said. Toby lived in the house across from Ali's and was Jenna Marshall's step brother. Daisy never had anything against him- but Ali said he had been spying on the girls. While they were changing and stripping down to their underwear.

"Are- are you sure?" Aria said apprehensively.

"Yes I'm sure!" Alison said with annoyance in her voice. "He was right there- I bet he saw us all naked." That easily convinced the girls. They all felt gross now that they knew that Toby had been spying on them- Daisy crossed her arms with insecurity.

"Should we tell someone?" Aria said.

"Yeah, Ali-" Daisy began, but she quickly got interrupted by Alison.

"I mean we could, but I have a better idea."

And that's how the group of friends ended up outside. They sneaked around the Cavanuagh's property and circled around to the tree house outback, where Ali said Toby used commonly, though she insisted that he wasn't in there presently. They stood outside it, a worried look on each of their faces, not including Alison.

Daisy felt her stomach lurch- it wasn't right. They could have just told Em's mom when they were back at the house. But Ali dragged them back there. They couldn't back out.

Alison held a stink bomb in her left hand- yes, a stink bomb. That was her brilliant idea to get _revenge_. Aria was the first to speak up, though she did it with a whisper, "Are we sure he's not in there?" 

"He's not, okay?" Ali said with confidence. "You've got the lighter, right Daisy?" Daisy nodded reluctantly- she had been carrying around a lighter with her for almost a year. All five of her friends knew that the sixteen year old regularly smoked cigarettes and had been trying to convince her to stop- they hadn't made much progress so far.

"Let's just wait a second," Emily said, always the voice of reason.

"What, Emily?" Ali snapped, surprising Daisy. Ali commonly got snappy with the girls- mainly Spencer- but she almost never did with Emily.

"I don't want to do this," Emily said, more shy than before.

"Fine," Ali shrugged. Her harsh tone made Emily flinch and cross her arms. "Go back. You're on your own."

"Okay, maybe Emily's right," Aria said, making the other girls nod in agreement. They all saw the fire in Ali's eyes as she saw her friends suddenly turn against her. "We should just call the cops. They'll take care of it."

"Where's the fun in that? Girls, Toby Cavanaugh is a freak, and we need to teach him a lesson," Ali said frantically. Daisy could see her friend was getting desperate to regain control over the situation. "If he thinks he can come and spy on us while we're in your bedroom, Emily, he needs to know that this domain is no longer a safe little hideout.

"Who knows what he does in there all day, that little freak."

Spencer sighed and tried to calm Alison down, "Are you _sure_ that it was Toby?"

"Yes!" Alison cried. "And it's a stink bomb, for God's sake. We're not nuking the place. Now, let's do it. Give me the lighter."

"Ali, really, what if we get caught?" Daisy said, trying change Ali's mind, or at least stall her- Daisy really didn't feel good about what was about to happen. Neither did the other girls. Ali was the only one who did apparently.

"Daisy!"

Daisy did as she was told, albeit rather reluctantly. As she handed the small blue lighter to Alison, she felt her stomach lurch.

Ali lit the stink bomb and chucked in into the window of the wooden tree house and it went off with a loud bang- a bang louder than was expected to come from a stink bomb. It was then that a chain reaction went off, explosion after explosion coming from the old tree house. Along with a girls scream.

"What the hell?" Daisy cried.

"Ali, what did you do?" Spencer said, turning to the blonde accusingly. The blazing fire coming from the tree house set a warm orange glow on the girls' faces.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Ali grabbed Emily's arm and dragged her away, the rest of the girls trailing behind the pair.

 **~End of Flashback~**

Back in the courtyard, the girls still sat in awkward silence with Jenna. Then it happened again- the girls' phones went off, all of them, one by one. They knew what that meant. Daisy felt her breathing hitch when she looked at her phone- of course, the message was sent by a blocked number.

"Aren't you going to get that?" Jenna asked, clearly oblivious to why the girls were so reluctant to answer the texts.

"If only she could see how guilty you look- A."

A/N: Yayyy update. It is currently 12:30 AM and I made the executive decision to end this chapter here, rather than where the episode ended. I figured it would be more interesting this way, and I don't want the chapters to get super long this soon. Mainly because I don't have time to write chapters that are like 8k+ words, as much as I'd like to. This one reached almost 4500 words and took me a while to write. I'm also not to please with this chapter- but not much happened in the second episode. Thankfully everything will be getting super exciting soon- as you all must know. I have a lot planned for Daisy- like what happened with her and her brother her freshman year, where her mother is, things between her and Andrew, and what happened with her and Jason and what will happen when Jason comes back to Rosewood. Shit's gonna be good (I hope.) So, please follow/favourite and review- every bit helps and motivates me. I'm so lame I got excited when the first person followed this story, so thanks to that person. This a/n is getting ridiculously long, so I suppose I should end it here. Thanks a million for reading!

-TheCanadianWonder.

P.S: Hopefully (And realistically) the next chapter will be posted withing the next week or so. :-)


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Ugh… So many apologies are in order… Firstly; sorry this chapter is so inexcusably late. I was working at a camp as a volunteer for two weeks and then last week I didn't have any internet for another week. So there's my shitty excuse. Secondly; Sorry that this chapter is so short. I chopped this episode in half because of a case of serious writers block that I've seemed to catch… I've got several other stories in the works, some fanfiction (OC's for The 100 and Teen Wolf that I hope to post soon) And some original stuff (None of which I plan one sharing any time soon- Maybe one day…) Anywhere, here it is, chapter four. Thanks for all of the faves/follows. I would really super love any reviews that you have to offer, maybe?

-TheCanadianWonder

 **Chapter Four: To Kill a Mocking Girl (Pt. One)**

"Who's idea was this again?" Hanna whined.

The five girls found themselves walking along together in the middle of the once familiar woods of Rosewood. Trees surrounded them, and they had walked long enough that they couldn't hear the cars from the roads. All they could hear was each others voices and the breeze moving the leaves above them.

Daisy hated it. It made her on edge- all the A crap already had her paranoid and jumpy, and being in those woods was not helping her get out of that mind set. It seemed as though Hanna wasn't too happy with their current situation either.

"Emily's mom," Spencer told Hanna.

"The shed was me," Explained Emily. "My mom said we should do something for us."

"Well," Hanna said. "Couldn't we do something without mosquitoes?"

"They're not mosquitoes, they're gnats," Aria said, as though that would calm Hanna down.

"Whatever!" The blonde girl snapped, waving her arms frantically. "They're small and annoying and they're flying up my nose."

"Well, they're attracted to your perfume," Said Spencer with a small, playful smile. "And your hair product. And your lip gloss."

"So, what are you saying?" Hanna crossed her arms. "I attract flies?"

"No-" Daisy chuckled. "You attract gnats, according to Aria."

"Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?" Emily changed the subject with a worried tone in her voice.

"No, this is it," Spencer said confidently. "I remember that tree. It's the halfway point. There's one hundred thirty six steps left to the shed." Emily and Aria both shared a confused look with each other

"Have you been here since..." Emily started. "Since Alison?"

"Me? No. No way," Spencer insisted, while shaking her head. Daisy couldn't imagine going back to that shed after Ali went missing. She hadn't even thought about it. Not just because it would bring up the memories of her and Ali and her friends there, but also because she didn't trust herself to be able to find it. Unlike Spencer, clearly.

"But… You remember that tree?" Aria asked.

"You guys," Interrupted Hanna. "It's not that weird. We used to come out here like every single day… Even after..."

"Also, did you forget that it's Spencer?" Daisy said, trying to lighten the mood- it only worked a little, though, as it got a light chuckle out of the other four girls.

The girls walked in silence for just a few minutes, until they finally arrived at the wooden shed. The girls had spent hours there during summer days and nights after school. Many games of truth or dare and would you rather were played in that shed. Daisy remembered them well- though she also remembered rain checking a lot of dates that were planned between the six girls in that shed so she could hang out with Jason while no one was at the DiLaurentis house… But that was behind her…

Spencer was the first to speak up when they reached the shack. "I think that this is the totally wrong place to do this… Whatever you call it- Shrine," She confessed to her friends.

"It's not a shrine," Emily turned around to face Spencer, a pleading look in her almond eyes. "It's just a place to remember Alison. What's wrong with that?"

"Doing it out here makes it look like we have something to hide."

"You're worried about what other people think?"

"Well, aren't you?" Spencer snapped- Emily fell silent. Daisy understood where Spencer was coming from- Rosewood was filled with nosy people. Anything deemed mildly interesting would spread around the town within seconds. They had to be careful, they had been the center of attention for awhile, what with being the dead girl's friends and all. "Do you really want to give that creepy detective more reasons to question us?"

"Spencers right," Daisy finally spoke up- she never trusted Wilden and she wanted to deal with him as little as possible. "Wilden is an _asshole._ He's been looking for anything that would connect _us_ to Ali's murder- we need to stay under the radar for a while. We can't look suspicious. Even with something like this."

Hanna had gone silent- a rare thing for the usually very opinionated girl. This didn't go unnoticed by Emily. "Hanna, why are you so quiet?" She asked, fully prepared to drag her into the argument.

"I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out of my mouth," Hanna said defiantly.

Emily wasn't going to let it go. "You're allowed to have an opinion on this."

"You want my opinion?" Hanna finally spoke up. "I say, we hold off and not remember her until we know for sure she's not still here." The other girls stopped all movement and looked at Hanna in shock. Daisy felt like her heart was trying to claw it's way up through her neck. Ali wasn't alive- she couldn't be. But… That was exactly what Hanna was saying.

"Jesus, Hanna..." Daisy said, brushing her hair out of her face with a sigh.

"Hanna, they found her body," Spencer said in disbelief.

"Stop," Aria interrupted. Her face had suddenly paled at the mention of there being a possibility that their dead friend wasn't… Well… Dead. "I'm officially scared… Can we just- not?"

"You know, you asked for my opinion. I don't think she's dead," Hanna scoffed. Daisy shook her head- it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous- right?

"We went to her funeral," Spencer cried. It was true- they were all there. They all mourned her death. They all saw Jessica DiLaurentis sob over her loss.

"Yeah," Hanna replied, crossing her arms over her chest. She was clearly getting annoyed at that point. "And when we left we all got a text from her."

"It wasn't her," Emily insisted. Though, if Daisy was being honest, she would say that it partially sounded like Emily was trying to convince herself of that fact, and not just Hanna. "Someone is messing with us."

"How do you know?" Hanna said- Daisy could see that her friend was getting close to reaching her breaking point. "And what about all those nasty messages? I mean, how does this A person know stuff only Ali knew?"

"Hanna," Daisy said, trying to calm her friend down. Unfortunately, she wasn't very good at keeping a quiet tone. "Isn't it a possibility that Alison didn't keep our secrets… Secret?"

"Okay," Aria interrupted worriedly. "This conversation is giving me a hive."

"That's a bite. Mosquito," Quipped Hanna.

"...Gnat," Daisy mumbled.

Then came a rustling from the bushes. The girls stopped where they were and all turned towards the noise together. Someone was out there- Daisy could feel it. No matter how much she wanted it to be an adorable bunny rabbit.

"What was that?" Emily whispered. "Did you hear that?"

"Yes I heard that, I'm standing right next to you," Aria whispered back, making Emily give her a look.

"We are so dead," Daisy said, though usually optimistic. Spencer elbowed her in the side and gave her a look that clearly said _shut the hell up_. How sweet.

"Hello? Is anybody out there?" Hanna asked. Daisy wanted to slap her- if it was a murderer then they wouldn't answer her. They would just… murder.

"It's probably a rabbit," Spencer said doubtfully.

"Hello?"

"Hanna, it's a rabbit," Spencer repeated. "It's not gonna answer you."

The branches rustled once again. Only this time the sounds were closer- louder. Daisy felt her stomach lurch. "Okay, that is definitely _not_ a rabbit," Hanna said, voicing the other girls' thoughts. "Someone is out there."

"Then why are we still here?" Daisy whispered harshly. If there was someone out there then she was all set on getting the hell out of there.

The girls all nodded, agreeing with the curly haired girl. They turned to leave, and get out of those damned woods. The girl's cellphone rang. The six of them all froze in place- A. It had to be. It was barely ten in the morning and Daisy already wanted to go back to bed.

The girls each took out their phones, dreading what they'd see.

"Heads up, BFFs. It's open season on liars and I'm going hunting… -A."

Later, Daisy had changed into a casual, blue dress, black heeled boots, tied a black bandana in her hair and walked to Rosewood High. She was at her locker when Andrew walked up- once again with two cups of coffee in his hand. He handed one to a very grateful Daisy, and she thanked him with a smile.

"So," Andrew started, that boyish smile that Daisy had grown familiar of playing on his lips. "You going to Noel Khan's party tomorrow?"

Daisy shrugged, grabbing her science books out of her locker. "Dunno- I haven't given it much thought. Might be fun."

"It'd be a lot more fun if we went together."

"Like-Like on a date?" Daisy stuttered. A date with Andrew seemed...Well, Daisy's not sure how it seemed. It was foreign, weird. But not bad. She hadn't been with anyone since Jason- like really been with someone, as in a real relationship. Maybe letting her fall for someone wouldn't be such a bad thing.

"No- no. Just… Like as friends- just friends," Andrew stuttered out. Daisy felt both disappointed and relieved.

"Sounds good," Daisy smiled. Finally, an opportunity to relax and get drunk and _have fun._ "You're driving, right?"

"As per usual," Andrew chuckled. From the corner of her eye, Daisy could see Spencer, Emily and Aria chatting by some of the lockers. They were staring at something- or someone, rather. Toby Cavanaugh. He was with Jenna. He was back too, it would seem.

"Hey, I'll see you later, right?" Daisy and Andrew parted, and the young girl went and joined her friends by Aria's locker.

"He's back too? When did that happen?" Aria said worriedly after her, Emily and Spencer had greeted Daisy.

"He's Jenna's new seeing eye dog," Daisy sighed- everything just kept getting more and more complicated in Rosewood.

"Or maybe she needs help sending radioactive e-mails," Hanna said, approaching the group of four. Daisy raised her eyebrows- maybe A was a tag team thing. Jenna does the terrorizing and Toby just types it out and presses send.

"Yeah, or he may be sending a few of his own," Piped up Spencer.

Someone, a male voice, spoke out and captured the girls' attention. "Hanna," Daisy turned around when she heard it. It was Wilden who stood in front of the girls, his eyes lingering over Daisy before looking directly at Hanna.

"Cops on campus too..." Aria murmured so only the three other girls could hear her.

"I just spoke with your principle," Wilden spoke only to Hanna and ignored the other teenagers. "Asked him if we could have a chat."

"No, I have to get to class," Hanna said. Daisy understood- spending time alone with Wilden would never make for a good morning.

"Don't worry, you've been excused. Let's go," Darren nodded, motioning for Hanna to follow him. The pair walked away after Hanna shared one last worried glance with her friends while Wilden continued walking with that cocky stride of his.

"What's going on?" Aria whispered as soon as Hanna and Wilden had turned a corner and vanished from sight. "Why just her?"

"Well," Emily started. "He probably thinks that Hanna is easiest to crack."

"She is," Spencer confirmed.

"Either way," Daisy whispered. "She won't talk about...About _You Know What._ We promised that we wouldn't..."

"Whisper, whisper, whisper," Jenna mocked sarcastically while she passed the girls, her cane tapping in front of her and Toby following her closely behind. "It's almost like Alison's still here."

An hour later and Hanna was still in Wilden's clutches- though maybe Daisy was being a little over dramatic. Chances were that Wilden was just being a dick, nothing too serious. She hoped. The young brunette was walking down the corridors of Rosewood High with Spencer on her right and Aria and Emily on her left.

"What are you doing?" Spencer asked Aria as the shorter girl typed frantically on her phone. "Is that a new phone?"

Aria looked over at Spencer and nodded in confirmation before looking back to her phone. "Yeah, I'm checking my Kin," She explains to her three friends. "I'll just right on Hanna's wall from here."

"If she's not answering her texts, what makes you think she's checking Facebook?" Emily pointed out- Daisy couldn't help but nod in agreement- Wilden was probably running his mouth and had been for over an hour.

"It's worth a try," Aria shrugged.

"Is it though?" Daisy said doubtfully. She didn't know Darren well, but she did know that he was persistent. And a dick.

"What's going on?" Hanna's voice startled the trio from behind them. They all turned around to see Hanna standing there, as collected as ever, with her hands on her hips.

"We've been trying to get a hold of you," Aria slipped her new phone into her coat pocket. "What happened in there?"

"Nothing, just the same old, stupid questions."

"You were in there for an hour, Hanna," Spencer pointed out. "What else did he ask."

"Nothing," Hanna repeated pointedly. "He just took a couple of calls, and I just sat there, waiting for him to shut up." Daisy wasn't surprised. Wilden really did love the sound of his own voice.

"I do _not_ envy you," Daisy scoffed. Daisy and Wilden, alone together in an enclosed space? That wouldn't go well, to say the least.

"Well, is he gonna question all of us alone now?" Aria asked, worry laced in her voice. Daisy sure as hell hoped not.

"Who knows?" Hanna snapped. Daisy flinched at the blondes harsh tone. "Look, let's do this at lunch, okay? I have to hit the ladies' before my next class." And with that, Hanna stalked off, not even letting the other girls mutter a goodbye before she was out of sight.

There was a beat of silence after Hanna's sudden outburst before Spencer finally spoke up. "Is she being weird?"

Emily nodded in response, "She's being weird." It was clear to all of them that Hanna was… off. She was being snippy, even more so than usual. "I'll see you guys at lunch."

The girls said their goodbyes and headed to their own classes. Daisy couldn't help but notice how alike that conversation was to the ones that they used to have after Alison disappeared- or died, rather. Short, snippy and somewhat awkward. She hated it- it made her reminisce about the olden days. She hated reminiscing.


	5. Chapter 5: To Kill a Mocking Girl Part 2

The Kahn parties were legendary. And ridiculously stereotypical, but that's what made them so enjoyable for cynical teenagers like Daisy. She had found a red plastic cup in her hand not five minutes after she and Andrew had arrived. You know what I'm talking about- the ones you see in every party scene in every movie. Ever. If you asked her what she was drinking she wouldn't be able to answer- all she knew was that is was pink, fruity and full of liquor.

It was strange though. A year ago if she was in that same situation she would have downed that thing as fast as she could. But things were different now. Her family was falling apart- more on that later- Alison was found out to be dead, and Jason was God knows where. She was pretty sure that without Andrew or even the other girls she'd have gone insane. But for some reason she just couldn't find it in herself to have fun.

So there she was, fifty some minutes into the party, alone in the backyard. Andrew was in the bathroom... Or something. She hadn't paid much attention. She suspected he wouldn't be gone long enough for her to get lost anyways. That is until she spotted Aria, Spencer, and Emily, and she knew she was going to have to go over there. What if they had an update on all those ridiculous 'A' theories?

So she walked over to them as best she could, wobbling slightly in her four inch heels in the grass and dirt. She crammed herself into the circle that her friends had formed, smack in the middle of Aria and Emily.

"He tackled Ben?" She could hear Aria whisper-yell as she approached. This caused immediate confusion for Daisy. Ben, Emily's athletic and more than a little attractive boyfriend might've been a bit of an asshole, but she didn't see any reason for anyone to actually tackle him. "What was Toby even doing in the girls' locker room?"

"Hey," She nodded casually at her friends. "What're we talking about?"

This caused Emily to re-explain what she had already told the other girls- apparently Ben had been even more of an ass than usual and had tried to force himself on Emily in the locker room after her swim practice that day. At that point of the story, Daisy had calmly pointed out that had she been in that locker she would've politely introduced Ben to the back of her hand. Emily continued on with the story.

Toby had come storming in and tackled Ben to the ground. Soon after that, Emily told Ben that they were over, which, in Daisy's opinion, should have been obvious to the prick.

"Right," Spencer nodded, "And anyways, Aria, why are you shocked?" She asked, referring to the short girl's question- the one questioning Toby's presence in the girl's locker room. "We caught him peeping through the windows, watching us undress."

"Alison's the one who saw him do that," Emily interjected. "We never did." The comment was jarring to Daisy.

That's when Hanna decided to join in on the conversation. "What's up?" She asked, very similar to the way that Daisy had previously.

"From what I've gathered," Daisy started, "Toby Cavanaugh got in a fight with good ol' Ben over Emily."

"It wasn't over me," Emily said, a little too aggressive than Daisy was used to from the usually mild mannered Emily. "God. Look, he just... Saved me."

"For what, himself," Jeered Spencer, making the other girls' nose crinkle in disgust.

"Ew," Hanna said, voicing their thoughts.

"That is not something that I want to think about," Daisy agreed.

"If we hadn't asked you about Ben, would you have told us about this?" Aria turned back to Emily.

Before Emily even had the chance to defend herself, Spencer was practically jumping on her too. "Toby is not a good guy, Emily. He could be seriously dangerous."

Daisy couldn't help but agree with Spencer. "Spencer's right, Em. We don't know whether or not he's innocent with the whole... 'A' thing," She lowered her voice to a whisper at the last two words. Even just mentioning A felt taboo to her at that point. Like a hooded stranger would pop out of nowhere and spill all of her deepest darkest secrets to everyone.

"Fine, if he's such a bad guy," Emily rolled her eyes. "Why'd he take the fall for us?"

"Is this another secret?" Aria let fly. "Do you know something that we don't?"

"If he was really spying on us," Spencer started before he got cut off by Emily.

"Which we don't even know for sure."

"Listen," Daisy sighed, trying to calm herself as well as everyone else, down. "I don't even want to think about that possibility right now- because if he wasn't, then what does that make us?"

"Yeah, uh..." Hanna said, sounding rather distracted considering the subject matter. "Let's talk about it tomorrow, okay? Are we still meeting up at the shed?" Without waiting for anyone to answer her question, Hanna sashayed off in the most typical Hanna-like fashion.

"Yeah," Aria shook her head, confused at Hanna's sudden and strange departure. "Yeah, sure, why not?" And with that, she began walking away as well, before being stopped by Emily's voice.

"Wait, where are you going?" She asked. She didn't want that conversation to be over- unlike Daisy, who couldn't wait to get a drink. Sure, she didn't feel like it before, but damn if she didn't need one at that point- because she really did.

"The gallery," Aria explained shortly, clearly annoyed from the previous conversation. You could cut the tension with a knife, Daisy would swear. "I promised my mom."

It was then that Daisy spotted Andrew out of the corner of her eye. She could see him looking around, confused, probably wondering where she was. He was stood on the porch of the backyard, two cups in his hands. Daisy thought it was kind of funny- she was so used to seeing him holding two cups of coffee. But with these red, plastic cups? Who knew what was in there, but Daisy was for it, quite frankly.

"I'll catch up with the two of you later, alright?" She nodded to her two remaining friends. Spencer and Emily nodded back. "Just try to enjoy yourselves- let loose and all that fun stuff, right?" And with that she left the two girls to their own devices.

"Hey Andrew," She called as she approached the blond boy. "That second cup had better be for me, nerd." Andrew turned his head, confused at the sound of his name being called, but smiled when he realized it was Daisy who had said it.

"And what if it's not," Andrew quipped, making Daisy smile. Andrew's somewhat annoying sarcasm was comforting- a normal occurrence that made her shit-storm of a life at that moment.

"You'd better hope it is, after the day I've had, Campbell."

"And what kind of day is that, Thorton?" Andrew extended one of his hands that held a cup out to Daisy.

"The shitty kind," She said bluntly, gratefully taking the cup from her friend. She took a swig- she couldn't tell what it was. All she knew was that it was bright pink, fruity, and it didn't have enough alcohol. She'd get to that later, she told herself.

"Do you want to, I don't know, talk about it," Andrew mumbled into his cup, his cheeks turning red.

Daisy raised an eyebrow at Andrew in surprise, as well as a little bit of confusion. "Since when do I 'talk about it,' Andrew?"

"You sure?" Andrew smiled, the blush fading from his cheeks. "I've been told that I'm a great listener."

"Hmm," Daisy nodded. "I'm pretty sure that's what people call you when they can't think of an actual compliment."

Andrew said nothing to Daisy's predictable sarcastic quip, having grown used to them in the past year that he'd gotten closer to her. Instead he sat down on the steps of the porch, patting the space beside him silently, looking up at Daisy expectantly. Daisy sighed, before hesitantly sitting down next to the boy.

"So, what's up?" Andrew smiled, taking another swig from his cup. Though he didn't realize it, that was one hell of a loaded question. Obviously, she couldn't tell him the truth. He would flip shit, for one, and Daisy, as of late, had been keeping her cards even closer to her chest than usual. It seemed like the only logical thing to do considering what had been happening with Allison- or A. Or whoever. God, Hanna really had managed to get into her head that morning...

"Oh, you know," Daisy managed a smile while speaking. "Same old, same old."

Andrew raised an eyebrow that clearly conveyed just how much he believed what she had said- which is to say that he didn't believe it at all. "Daisy Mae..." Daisy immediately blanched at how much Andrew sounded like her own father with those two words.

"I've just... I've been thinking, alright?" She started, knowing that that wouldn't suffice in his book, so she continued before he had to prod her again. "Thinking about everything that happened with Ryan, you know?" It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.

Andrew was one of the few people that knew about her family drama. He immediately looked away from his best friend while shaking his head. "You shouldn't be- it's over. You and Ryan are okay now, right? You did the right thing, there's nothing to think about."

"God sometimes I forget just how different you and Ali are- or were." Daisy scoffed. "I mean she had the exact opposite reaction- thought that it would've been better for me to leave well enough alone. To leave my own brother out to dry. She even said-" she stopped mid-sentence, realizing what she had just unwittingly admitted to Andrew.

Daisy didn't look at him- she didn't need to. She knew that he'd be looking at her with a mix of shock, anger and even disappointment. She knew that look all too well, though she had never had to deal with it coming from Andrew. "Alison knew? How the hell did she find out?"

"She didn't just find out," Daisy figured that she didn't need to give her friend all the nitty gritty details- she hadn't even told him about Jason or the Jenna thing. "I know you don't like thinking about it, but she was my friend okay?"

Then it was Andrew's turn to scoff indignantly. "I know she was your friend, but I also know that treating people like dirt was one of her favourite after school activities. I'm sure she wasn't any different towards the people she called her friends."

At that Daisy whipped her head so she could glare at Andrew head on. "It's non of your business how she treated me. Don't act like you know who Alison was. You didn't- you still don't"

"I'm not gonna apologize, Mae. You know I won't. I just want to know why you trusted her when you really did know her. When you know what she might have done with information like that."

Daisy couldn't find the words- or at least, she couldn't figure out what exactly Andrew wanted to hear. So instead of waiting for her to answer, he continued.

"Your brother wasn't just caught with an ounce of pot and threatened with a strong warning, alright? He was dealing. And it wasn't just weed," he was on a roll. Daisy wouldn't even be able to stop him if she wanted to- which she did. Very much so. "You're lucky that you were just held back a year and lost a bit of your dad's trust. Ryan could be in jail right now had Alison decided to breath so much as a word of this to anyone."

There was beat of silence before Daisy spoke again. "Thanks for the recap, Andy. It's been a real slice." The boy opened his mouth to speak but Daisy didn't want to hear another word leave his mouth. "I'll see you in Chem, yeah?"

"I'm your ride, Daisy," Andrew exclaimed, watching with wide eyes as the blonde stood from her spot on the steps of the deck and brushed herself off.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it," she smiled like nothing was wrong and began to walk inside. "I'll figure something out, babe. I always do."

—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•

Daisy woke the next morning with the hangover from hell, as was expected. After that conversation with Andrew, she had sought out the night of fun so many people had tried to rob her of. She's just lucky that her father was in Philly for business and that she had a brother that didn't mind driving- or, more accurately, was begrudgingly willing- all the way to the Kahn place in the dead of night to pick up his baby sister.

She wasn't so lucky to be woken up by another goddamn text from A. Had her head not already been pounding, she would have let out a loud groan of annoyance.

"Trouble in paradise, dee? Poor little Andy doesn't even know the real you, does he? Not like I did. Careful- the truth can break hearts.- A"

The seventeen year old didn't have much time to ponder it's significance- though she did manage to squeeze in a good portion of pissed off- because of her plans with the other girls. So, she popped two extra strength advils, grabbed her bag and slammed the front door behind her.

—–—• —–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•—–—•

Spencer had a confession for her friends when they met up in the woods. It concerned their least favourite subject of conversations- The Jenna Thing. "Alison wanted us across the street so she could have it out with Toby. Ali had something on him." She explained.

"Besides being a total perv who peeped in our windows?" Hannah asked rhetorically and with a raised eyebrow, as she stumbled over rocks and twigs in her ridiculously impractical heels.

"Yeah," Spencer confirmed. "Something way bigger. And she was threatening to tell everybody. That's why he took the fall for us."

"Why are you waiting until now to tell us?" Aria inquired.

"Did you just forget to tell us this major component from our one hit arson wonder?" Daisy asked with a significantly larger amount of bite than Aria's question had held, not that anyone was surprised at the juxtaposition of the two girls' tones.

"I don't know," Spencer admitted while shaking her head, clearly slightly embarrassed of her own decisions. "Ali made me promise, and... I guess I was scared. I thought if we never talked about that night again, it would just go away..." Daisy felt her angry resolve crumbling at Spencer's words. She couldn't pretend like she didn't understand that train of thought.

"Well, it's not going away," It was obvious that Hannah didn't feel the same way. "Not unless we toss our phones and join the navy."

"Look, there's four of us and one freak sending messages. If we talk to each other like this, I feel like it makes it easier to deal with everything." Emily voice, surprising everyone with her eloquence.

"We have had quite a few problems with the whole communication thing, haven't we?" Daisy couldn't help but point out. Even in that moment, they each had their own secrets that none of them had owned up to to one another.

"Well, I think Emily's right," Aria spoke up once more. "There's way too many secrets. We shouldn't do this in the middle of nowhere. We should do it where we can see it everyday."

"You mean, like, somewhere in school?" Hannah questioned with a cock of her head.

"No," Aria shook her head and stopped walking, causing a domino effect. The girls ended up standing together in a circle amidst the trees. "In town. We should ask if we can put a bench in somewhere- and you know what? Whoever did this to her, if they're in Rosewood, we should make them look at it everyday too."

Daisy couldn't quite figure out whether she liked that idea or not. So maybe Andrew hadn't been completely, totally wrong the night before when he talked about how Ali had made her fair share of enemies when she was alive. There was no doubt in Daisy's mind that a public anything dedicated to Alison's memory would do little more than piss a wide amount of people off.

Hannah must have felt conflicted as well- her silence and her puckered lips conveyed at least that much. She had always been easy to read for Daisy.

"What, you hate the idea?" Spencer directed the question toward Hannah- apparently she was just easy to read in general.

"No. No, I just... I had a rough night."

The conversation came to an abrupt end when a soft rustling came from the bushes around them. The girls, not wanting a repeat from the last time they had heard similar noises in that neck of the woods, shared a mere look before making a run for it.

Daisy felt the air in her chest tightening as she ran. She just barely had the time to digest the fact that they had started running until they had come to a stop.

Hannah and Aria were both hunched over, trying to catch their breath beside her and Daisy's own chest was rising and falling rapidly. They had stopped in a rather convenient clearing in the trees.

"We can't have one normal day, can we?" Daisy threw her hands up in the air as if to say you've got to be kidding me.

"Not if A has anything to say about it." Hannah answered, before she stopped cold, her eyes locked on the ground. "Look," She nodded towards a space in front of her.

It was a pink bracelet- a very familiar pink bracelet. It made around a thousand memories swirl around in Daisy's mind in quick succession.

"Is that yours?" Spencer dressed all of them, hoping that someone, anyone, would claim it.

But it was Aria who did the exact opposite of that, and rather confirmed everyone's fears.

"It's Alison's."


End file.
